Covid-19 is nature's wake-up call to complacent civilisation | George Monbiot

A bubble has finally been burst - but will we now attend to the other threats facing humanity?We have been living in a bubble, a bubble of false comfort and denial. In the rich nations, we have begun to believe we have transcended the material world. The wealth we've accumulated - often at the expense of others - has shielded us from reality. Living behind screens, passing between capsules - our houses, cars, offices and shopping malls - we persuaded ourselves that contingency had retreated, that we had reached the point all civilisations seek: insulation from natural hazards.Now the membrane has ruptured, and we find ourselves naked and outraged, as the biology we appeared to have banished storms through our lives. The temptation, when this pandemic has passed, will be to find another bubble. We cannot afford to succumb to it. From now on, we should expose our minds to the painful realities we have denied for too long. Continue reading...